Warding off Wrackspurts
by Jetainia
Summary: Ginny is struggling with her memories of her first year and Tom Riddle, Luna might be able to help with that.


**Written for The Quidditch League Fanfiction Competition**

 **Position: Chaser 3 (Reserve)**

 **Prompts: Ginny Weasley; (word) harm; (quote) To light a candle is to cast a shadow. - Ursula K. Le Guin; (dialogue) "It's so good to be home."**

 **Word count: 1,264**

 **Beta: queen-sheep**

* * *

Life was strange after Ginny's first year at Hogwarts. All year, she had been writing in a possessed diary and been possessed herself by the original owner. She hadn't made any friends, too caught up in the diary to pay any attention to what was happening elsewhere. She only just scraped by in her assignments. Tom aided her in them sometimes and was probably the only reason she didn't completely fail all her classes. Of course, it was his fault in the first place that she didn't pay attention in class.

His help had made Ginny love Tom just as much as she loved her brothers. He was helping her succeed; he helped her work through the many dilemmas that she poured out to him at night in writing. He was her closest confidant and she felt that as long as he was by her side, she didn't need anyone else.

But then Tom had taken her down to the Chamber of Secrets and tried to steal her life from her. Harry Potter had saved her from an untimely death and she felt so torn that both of her idols fought over her. One wanted to kill her, one wanted to save her. She didn't know which one she wanted to win. Harry told her the story one night when he found her silently staring into the fire in the Gryffindor Common Room. He told her how the diary had held the soul of one Tom Riddle and that her friend had seen her as a whiny girl who didn't matter past a way of coming back to life.

She had seen Tom as another brother, one that she could say anything to and not worry about what they would think. Tom had never told her she was being silly. He had told her to go after what she wanted, to not care about what others said. She thought he loved her just as much as she loved him. Knowing this was false destroyed Ginny and she cried in Harry's arms as he comforted her.

Now, in her second year of Hogwarts, she wondered what she would do. It was strange to be in school without the comforting presence of her chosen brother beside her. She couldn't write to him every night about her day or about an assignment that was giving her trouble. She had no one to talk to and it was all her fault. Every time she picked up a book, she half expected to find Tom had moved into it. She was always disappointed when he wasn't there.

Luna was her first friend. The Ravenclaw had come up to her as she stared into the Black Lake and said, "To light a candle is to cast a shadow. Your light has overwhelmed the shadow but it still remains. You've lost some Wrackspurts since last year, you know."

Ginny had merely stared incredulously at the strange girl. "Uh, thanks? What in Merlin's name is a Wrackspurt?"

"They cloud the brain. They don't cause any real harm, but it is best to have as few as possible."

"Right."

"I'm Luna Lovegood, shall we be friends?"

The idea sounded so very strange to Ginny. Friends? She didn't know Luna at all, though at least Luna wasn't a spirit locked inside a diary wanting to steal her lifeforce. As she thought of the lonely nights by herself in the dorm and during meals, Ginny thought it would be rather nice to have a friend that she hadn't already scared off with Tom last year.

"Okay," she agreed. "I'm Ginny Weasley."

Luna smiled at her, "I know. You should smile more. Happiness scares Wrackspurts, they leave you alone when you think happy thoughts."

"I'll try," Ginny said. She knew that would be almost impossible with how much Tom filled her mind at all hours of the day. She was always thinking about his betrayal, always thinking about how much she still loved him even after he had tried to kill her.

"When the Wrackspurts flock around me, I think about my home. There's a stream nearby where I can catch Gulping Plimpies, which Papa uses to make stew. We have Dirigible Plums in our garden that are brilliant for salads. The fields surrounding the house are great for running in but they're infested with Nargles.

"That's why we hang corks around the property, so they can't come into the garden and get into the Dirigible Plums. What's your home like?"

"It's loud. I have six brothers and they're always making noise. Well, Bill and Charlie don't since they've moved out but Fred and George are always making explosions. We have a poltergeist living in our attic and he's always moaning. I almost couldn't sleep when I first got to Hogwarts because it was so silent. But then Tom help—" she stopped.

Tom. She couldn't escape him. He was in her good memories and her bad ones. He was everywhere. The corridors of Hogwarts only served to remind her of the one she tried the hardest to forget. Any time she put her quill to parchment, the thought of him drifted through her mind.

Annoyed at herself, Ginny picked up a nearby stone and threw it into the lake, watching the ripples slowly disperse as the stone sank down. She could relate to the stone. She felt like she was drowning in the memories of Tom and she had no way of swimming up. She was just a stone lost in an ocean of Tom.

"We have gnomes," she said suddenly, determined to push back the thoughts of Tom. "They like our garden so we always have to degnome it every week. There's no way to stop them like there is for Nargles, whatever they are. Mum gets annoyed at them because they keep tearing up the plants. Fred and George think they're hilarious. They have competitions for who can throw the gnomes the furthest when they're degnoming. I won once. I wanted so much to win that I did some accidental magic and sent the gnome so far we couldn't see where it landed.

"I thought I'd be disqualified but Fred and George said that it wasn't against the rules to use accidental magic and said that I'd won fair and square. Mum got me a new jumper when she heard how far I'd sent the gnome. She was so happy that I performed magic and gotten rid of at least one gnome more permanently than usual."

Ginny remembered that day well. The twins had insisted on carrying her on their shoulders for the rest of the day after she had sent the gnome flying with her magic. They had called her the Queen of Degnoming for a week. It was a good memory. Best of all, Tom had nothing to do with it.

Luna hummed and nodded. "It's so good to be home. You've scared off lots of Wrackspurts already just thinking about it. I'll help you get rid of the others."

"Thanks, Luna." Ginny smiled. It was a true smile, one that she hadn't been able to manage ever since the Chamber. Luna was weird and Ginny still had no real clue of what Wrackspurts and Nargles were, but Luna had made her smile. And that was a miracle in and of itself. Ginny's smile widened as she realised that she might have finally found a sister.


End file.
